Fifteen-year-old Coventry school pupil Jack Sharp went to number 10 Downing Street to take part in a "Big Conversation" about children with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Dressed in jeans and a black tee-shirt with a white motif resembling a death's head on it, he was ushered through the famous front door, up the staircase lined with portraits of past Prime Ministers to the dining room.

He was invited with around 50 other people to join an afternoon's discussion on how to help every child get a good start in life and education. It was all part of the Labour party's pledge to listen to people in the country.

They included head teachers, social workers, representatives from children's charities, parents, grandparents, a young single mum, a 17-year-old living on her own and a young woman who looked after her teenage sister.

The plush dining room with its chandelier, swagged curtains and stately paintings had the atmosphere of a very posh tea-room.

The 50 guests split into six groups seated on red plush chairs around tables and each discussing a separate topic.

Minister for children Margaret Hodge told them: "The importance of this big conversation is that some of the ideas which come out of here will help form our manifesto, Labour's manifesto, before we get to the next election."

Jack, from Earlsdon, was put forward for the event by the charity National Children's Bureau.

He lives with his parents Jon, who runs an aeroplane engine leasing company and Gaynor, who works for the Open University, and his brothers Tom, 17 and Will, 13. All three brothers are pupils at Finham Park School.

He is no stranger to speaking in public. When he was 11 he spoke before the then government minister Paul Boateng at a conference in London looking at racism, bullying and teaching.

Nonetheless, he was initially awed at stepping through the portals of a powerhouse of government.

He said: "It was quite intimidating at first when you walked in, and it's huge, and you think, 'This is where the Prime Minister works.'

"You also think you don't belong here - it belongs to higher powers. But when you got into it, and into following things, it was really just like any other conference, just a different format, more relaxed."

After an hour or so of discussions, Prime Minister Tony Blair walked in and spent about five minutes with each group, putting on a pair of spectacles while he took notes and whipping them off again the minute he stopped writing.

Jack's group suggested making it compulsory for all schools to have pupils' councils, that social workers should be "embedded" in their communities and see a wider range of people, and that citizenship should be introduced across all lessons, for example using figures on asylum-seekers in maths lessons.

When Mr Blair joined their table with a mug of tea, Jack said it would be good if more schools could copy one in Birmingham which allowed pupils to choose topics they wanted to learn about and brought in specialist teachers for them on Fridays.

All the groups then summarised their ideas, which ranged from taxing advertising hoardings to pay for leaflets telling parents what help was available to them, to free access to holiday clubs for low-income families, to getting rid of the term "bogus-asylum seekers" which some felt stigmatised innocent children.

The Prime Minister then spent 20 minutes answering them, saying the government wanted to know people's views and that in the 21st century countries had to make the most of their people's potential or fall behind economically.

He said: "Believe it or not, most politicians try to get it right. Whether they succeed or not depends on the information they get and their ability to interact with people... that's why we call it a conversation." Afterwards, Jack said he thought Mr Blair did listen.

"Yes, I do. In his speech afterwards he had some set stuff he was going to say anyway regardless of what we said, but it was half and half with points he heard when he'd sat down and listened to us."